Pfizer calls off $160bn Allergan merger on US tax changes - reports

Crackdown on domicile changes

Pharmaceutical company Pfizer has abandoned its planned $160bn merger with Allergan, according to reports, marking an end to the largest-ever healthcare acquisition.

The news comes after the US government introduced a crackdown on inversions, which enable a US company to shift its tax address overseas, often through a merger, in order to give it a lower tax rate. According to Bloomberg, as a result of the Pfizer-Allergan deal the new company would have been located in Ireland, and would have escaped the US's 35% tax rate on profits made anywhere in the world. However, the new rules mean this merger is no longer as advantageous for the US firm, which has now abandoned the takeover plan, according to a source quoted by Bloomberg. Which global sec...